Humanist Union Navy
__TOC__ Summary The Humanist Union Navy - officially the Federal Navy - consists of first-line military vessels intended for combat or the support of combat. The Federal Navy answers to to the Office of the Navy, the Department of War, and the Coordinator himself; civil defense fleets and their officers have no standing whatsoever in the naval command structure. Humanist naval doctrine currently favors larger warships supported by light destroyers and corvettes for mopping up enemy fighter/bomber assets; the navy employs no war carriers. Naval ships are tagged with "FNS" - "Federal Naval Ship," civil defense vessels with "CDS" - "Civil Defense Ship," and civilian vessels with "CS" - "Civil Ship." Warships are undecorated save the seal of the Humanist Union and the navy, usually emblazoned near the nose of the vessel. Civil Defense Force crews tend to be of a somewhat less professional caliber than military crews, and are often populated with individuals with an interest in space but an attachment to home unsuiting for naval life. Weaponry and Equipment Missiles Guided missiles are the primary long-range weapon utilized by Union vessels in space combat. Stored in large banks, they overwhelm point defense measures, armor, and shields with sheer weight of fire. Like many space-borne missile systems, the Union utilizes "kinetic kill" platforms that obviate the need for a warhead through sheer velocity. Smaller vessels tend to use smaller missiles and launchers; these weapons have a corresponding decrease in guided range and destructive power, but are still longer-armed than unguided mass drivers. The Union does have non-kinetic missiles, but these are special task tools. ECM missiles either penetrate enemy ships at lower velocities to cripple their electronics or are detonated externally for disabling poorly-protected civilian vessels. Nuclear missiles are primarily used for heavy orbital bombarment - some have multiple warheads that seed from the main platform, each capable of devastating civilian or military targets. Corvettes and destroyers often carry considerable reserves of "flak" missiles, which, fired en masse, can be incredibly dangerous against entire wings of light strike craft. Interceptor missiles are mini-missiles that piggyback off of a task-built larger missile to get to long range before detatching and seeking targets. Mass Drivers Mass drivers are rapid-fire electrical weapons that accelerate conductive slugs at tremendous speeds. Due to their unguided nature and the incredible ranges space combat usually occurs at, they aren't well-suited for long range combat but instead come into their own at medium or close range, where enemy ships are easier to predict and evasive maneuvering is more difficult. Their rapid-fire nature and simple, compact ammo make them extremely effective in such circumstances. Larger mass drivers, usually mounted along a considerable length of the ship's spine, fire larger projectiles at higher speeds. Firepower is tremendous, but so is power consumption and stress on the rails - rate of fire is necessarily quite slow on these "skull-crackers." The proportion of mass drivers to missile racks on smaller vessels tends to be higher, as mass drivers are more compact and can carry deeper magazines. Mass drivers can be loaded with "flak" shells that explode into a cloud of lethal shrapnel intended to shred fighter and bombercraft. Because these shells need relatively little velocity to be effective, rate of fire increases dramatically. Heavier mass drivers can be used for pinpoint orbital bombardment. Laser Arrays Generally point-defense weapons, laser arrays are multi-unit tools designed to intercept incoming missile fire and small craft. Laser dispersion makes them impractical for most ship-to-ship combat, but their incredible speed, lack of ammunition, and compact nature make them well-suited for interception. When combat closes to knife-fighting range under rare circumstances, a warship with power to spare will usually lash out with its laser arrays: they're not particularly powerful, but sometimes the difference between success and failure in an engagement rests on a razor's edge. Pirates refer to naval laser arrays as "pill-poppers," due to their frequent use in destroying - or "popping" - pirate escape pods; engaging in piracy in Union space is grounds for an automatic death sentence at a commander's discretion, and few naval commanders are merciful. Autocannons Multi-barreled automatic cannons firing high-velocity streams of shells at literally thousands of rounds per minute, these weapons are archeotech by Union military standards, the know-how in their manufacture being literally over a milennia old. While never seen on governmental warships, they do appear in profusion among pirate and civilian vessels, to provide for offensive considerations and defensive ones respectively. Unimpressive projectile velocity means that these weapons are limited to short or knife-fighting range at best, and hits on necessarily-large magazines can devastate or destroy a vessel outright. The long-destroyed New Havonian navy made heavy use of these weapons, to their detriment. Minelayers A relative of the missile rack, the minelayer is used to deploy "mines," typically to cover retreats, prepare ambushes, or brace for an incoming fleet. These "mines" are actually missiles that lay in wait until they detect enemy warships. When the target closes to sufficient range, the missile goes "live" and moves for the target much as a standard missile does. Unspent mines can later be given a signal from their master ship to scram their brain or ping friendly ships for retrieval and reuse. Mines are extremely difficult to detect when "quiet" save by luck or their activation, and rapid deployment is a fairly simple process. Warships(3400) Ares-class dreadnought A titanic warship, the Ares-class is the oldest warship design still used by the Humanist Union, with earlier incarnations dating back centuries. Examples of the Ares-class's forerunner, the Mars-class, served on both sides of the Progressive Civil War, where they demonstrated their ability to devastate lesser warships in single salvos. The Ares-class represents the next logical step in the lineage of the dreadnought's line, a modernized vessel streamlined for Humanist sensibilities. A mere handful of Mars-class ships survived the revolution; all have been retrofitted to modern standards. The Ares-class takes considerable time and resources to manufacture or upgrade from the old Mars-class, meaning that relatively few exist today. Despite this and the emergence of the Revolution-class as the Union's standard battleship, there is no intention to retire the venerable dreadnought within the forseeable future. In Service: 10 Retired: 0 Destroyed:0 Points: 400 Vessels: FNS Ares, FNS Vigilant Revolution-class battleship The Revolution-class battleship's development came on the heels of the November-class heavy cruiser. With the Humanist Union's navy in tatters following the Progressive Revolution, there was a great demand for heavy capital ships to spearhead the navy's large fleet actions; existing heavy warships were either damaged beyond practical use or did not fit within emerging Union combat doctrine. The post-war rebuilding saw the Ares-class's production slowed by its sheer bulk and material investment; military engineers set to work on a new warship that could be produced to fill empty slots in navy formations across the sectors. The result was the Revolution-class battleship. Thick-hulled, ugly, and bristling with weapons arrays, the Revolution-class is characteristically ponderous but deadly, capable of engaging in the most severe of fleet engagements. The Revolution-class has assumed the role of heaviest capital ship in many Humanist formations across the nation. In Service: 30 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 200 Vessels: FNS Revolution, FNS Proletarian Anya Paterson-class battlecruiser A departure from the old republican battlecruisers derived from the Durandal-class, the Anya Paterson-class - named for the famed socialist war hero - is an iconic example of the Humanist Union's efforts to redesign its navy from the ground up to fit its needs. Humanist battlecruisers typically help to fill the gap for "real" battleships in a military spread thin across a wide expanse of often-hostile space, and are also used to give cruiser squadrons a much heavier knock-out punch. In large fleet engagements, battlecruisers serve as fire support for true battleships, or otherwise use their considerable agility to help lead flanking maneuvers. A heavy mass driver mounted in the ship's "spine" can outright destroy light warships and cripple medium ones, while tremendous banks of missile racks and turret-mounted mass drivers provide the rest of the vessel's considerable firepower. The Anya Paterson-class is considered somewhat lightly-armored for a heavy Humanist warship: this is a product of battlecruiser design, which emphasizes firepower and agility. Nonetheless, by galactic standards, the Anya Paterson is quite solid. In Service: 50 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 160 Vessels: FNS Anya Paterson, FNS Liberator November-class heavy cruiser Among the Humanist Union's first "home-grown" warships to reach mass deployment, the November-class does not share a lineage with earlier republican warships. Designed from the ground up to embody the Humanist Union's military doctrine, the November-class has been symbolically significant since the first vessel was launched. Though not particularly more massive than the Broadsword-class, the November-class is better-armed and protected, capable of making its presence known even in heavy fleet engagements. November-class vessels often lead lesser cruiser squadrons; their spinal mass driver is significantly more powerful than the Broadsword-class's more conservative model. The November-class isn't perfect - its acceleration and agility aren't impressive for a cruiser. Thanks to its considerable increase in firepower and protection without a considerable increase in size, the accomodations on the November-class are quite spartan, arguably more so than on the Broadsword-class. In Service: 105 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 80 Vessels: FNS November, FNS Red Autumn Broadsword-class cruiser Drawing many of its design characteristics from the republican Stiletto-class cruiser, the Broadsword-class was the first of the Humanist Union's new warship designs to reach mass production. Some argue that this honor belongs to the November-class, which does not draw significantly on pre-Union vessels at all. Simply and efficiently built, the Broadsword-class is a typicaly workhorse vessel, performing the full range of cruiser duties adequately. Standard cruiser squadrons, though generally led by November-class vessels or the Anya Paterson-class, often have more Broadsword-class cruiser hulls than any other one type. The Broadsword-class is the lightest Humanist vessel to mount a spinal mass driver. The Broadsword-class is among the most numerous warships the Humanist Union possesses, and as a result can be found almost anywhere in Union space. In Service: 125 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 60 Vessels: FNS Broadsword, FNS Cossack Raven-class destroyer After the success of the Broadsword-class and November-class in mass deployment and with new heavy designs well under way, the Federal Navy turned its gaze to replacing its lightest warships. The Raven-class is a product of this focus, a destroyer designed largely on lessons learned from the Broadsword-class. Intended as a hunter-killer and fleet screen, the Raven-class often works with Sparrow-class corvettes or in homogenous "wolf packs." Like the Sparrow, the Raven-class is well-suited to dealing with fightercraft and gunships, and has an impressive acceleration profile. Not a few voices in the navy have suggested eventually retiring the Sparrow-class entirely in favor of consolidating light ship forces around the Raven-class. The ease with which the Sparrow-class can be produced, its higher agility, and the necessary retooling such a choice would entail has led to such a decision being postponed. Life on a Raven-class vessel, like life on many small warships, leaves little room for comfort or privacy. In Service: 160 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 40 Vessels: FNS Raven, FNS Fury Sparrow-class corvette The Sparrow-class, despite its unimpressive size, is a ship of numerous roles and abilities: scout, fleet screen, pirate interceptor, picket ship. Though certainly not equipped to engage heavy warships, they can serve as shepards even in large fleets, swatting fightercraft and gunships and scouting ahead of larger forces to spring traps. In peacetime, the Union's numerous Sparrows patrol the spaceways for pirates, smugglers, and foreign interlopers, arresting them or destroying them without mercy. Where too large a threat presents itself, the Sparrow's impressive acceleration profile and communications array allow it to retreat and call for assistance. Quarters on the Sparrow are cramped to the point of being uncomfortable; even high-ranking officers have little living space. More modern hulls have alleviated this issue somewhat. In Service: 160 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 25 Vessels: FNS Sparrow, FNS Bloodhound Lightbringer-class sloop Though referred to initially by the Humanist Union as a corvette, the Lightbringer-class - named in honor of a ship that played a significant symbolic role in the Progressive Revolution - would eventually be reclassified as a sloop to avoid confusion. Lightbringers are a "swiss army knife" craft apparently intended for the purpose of ferrying diplomatic representatives of the state. However, they are also equipped with sophisticated sensor and stealth equipment that reveals their second - and more important - role: that of a stealth scout. Relatively untested in both roles, Union engineers eagerly await the fruit of their efforts. Lightbringers are not intended for combat and sport poor weapons and defenses. Though they can hold off pirate fightercraft and some converted civilian ships, their main defense is to withdraw from combat at high speed. Quarters on a Lightbringer are spartan but not uncomfortable, befitting its role in diplomacy and cultural attitudes in the Union. Relatively few examples of the vessel exist. In Service: 25 Retired: 0 Destroyed: 0 Points: 4 Vessels: FNS Lightbringer, FNS Wanderer Civil Defense Ships Sentinel-class cutter The Sentinel-class is the standard ship employed by the Civil Defense Force across the Union. Though it sports warship-grade weapons and protection, it is smaller than the Sparrow and not meant for extended deployment from a planetary base. Sentinel-class vessels patrol the "waters" of a given planet, keeping trade and transit routes free of pirates and smugglers. Individual Sentinels can easily handle the average slipshod pirate ship, but where resistance is stiff, Sentinels will work in packs or in cooperation with true warships. The Sentinel possesses an impressive acceleration profile but is, like most small warships, not comfortable. Warhound-class light corvette The Warhound-class can be found in the Civil Defense Forces of more critical systems in the Union, or otherwise in areas particularly prone to crime. Like the Sentinel, it is short-legged but armed and armored competently. Not much smaller than a Sparrow-class vessel, the appearance of a Warhound is enough to force the withdrawal of most would-be pirate fleets. When cooperating with the Federal Navy, Warhound-class vessels are relegated to duties comperable to the Sparrow-class. Civilian Ships OM-102 "Hummingbird" Shuttle The Hummingbird is the standard intrasystem shuttlecraft of the Humanist Union, both in civil and governmental affairs. Easy to manufacture, sturdy, and simple to repair, these ships fill a myriad of roles for a wide variety of institutions in the Union. The military uses model 105, with slightly better electronics and protection. Hummingbirds can be armed and used as insertion or light strike craft as well; the 105A packs limited firepower to go with the 105's edge in protection. The 105A is typically deployed only in orbit-to-surface military actions, never in fleet engagements. Pirates are not so choosy and will use 105As, sloppily-upgraded 105s and, or even civil 102s as raiding and boarding craft. JIS-101/HCI-1S "Mule" An ultralight freighter design dating back decades before the revolution. A product of Janeston Interstellar Shipyards (since nationalized and reformed as Humanist Civil Interstellar), this freighter's typical role is hauling small quantities of goods between sectors. Not all that well-armed or armored, most Mules carry enough defensive measures to stave off light attacks from fighter-scale craft only. Newer models have an updated power distribution system less likely to fail if the central trunk is damaged in an attack. HCI-1Ss often belong to independent operators or small cooperatives, unlike bulk freighters. HCI-1M "Boxcar" So-named for the ship's distinctive cargo section, the HCI-1M is a stereotypical medium freighter, and one of the most common civilian bulk carriers found in the Humanist Union. Boxcars are generally used for shipping between more established settlements, whose consumption and production requires larger shipments and which usually have appropriate spaceport facilities. Like all civilian craft, it is poorly armed and armored, only able to fend off light pirates. The design's bulk makes it a popular choice for refitting with weapons instead of cargo among pirate "fleets" that operate in Union space. Almost all Boxcars operate under the authority of state-owned shipping interests, frequently with crews consisting of individuals enrolled in the union's civil service (an alternative to military service). HCI-2L "Crate" A popular bulk freighter, the slab-like HCI-2L handles the heaviest commerce within Union space; it and ships like it are similarly vital to international trade. Less common on the edges of civilized space, Crates are quite a frequent sight in the Union's core sectors, where their tremendous wealth is safe under the watchful guns of well-organized civil defense assets and the constantly roaving navy. Poorly armed and armored, a Crate can fend off light pirate harassers but dedicates the overwhelming majoirty of its hull space to cargo bays. Crates make particularly tempting targets for pirates, not just for their material wealth but for the utility of the ship. A captured Crate can be converted to a variety of roles, from mobile greenhouse to pirate "cruiser." Criminal Ships Pirate Pursuit Ship Usually built on the hulls of Mules or other light civilian craft, the pursuit ship - or "chaser" - is a vessel tasked with running down and locking down vessels travelling in hyperspace, guiding them carefully out at chosen ambush points. Pirate pursuit ships have larger-than-normal hyperdrives, a necessity in wrestling often-larger prey out of hyperspace; sometimes larger vessels are needed for this task nonetheless. Badly armed and protected, pursuit ships have little room for captured cargo, devoting all of their space to their assigned task. Pirate Strikeboat While the Humanist Union navy frowns upon fighter and bombercraft in space engagements, pirates are not so choosy. Pirate strikeboats are typically ungainly fighter/bomber hybrids loaded with as many munitions as the frame can carry. As most pirate ships lack flight decks, they're often deployed from crude "branches" fastened to the docking ports of pirate warships. Naval and civil defense authorities look down upon these vessels, derisively referring to them as "gnats." Pirate Gunship Usually converted Mules or similar vessels, pirate gunships - commonly called "bumblebees" or just "bees" - are ungainly vessels packed with missiles and autocannon, with relatively little cargo space. Such vessels necessarily operate with cargo craft for the purpose of hauling looted goods and salvagable scrap. While uparmored and better-shielded than the typical civilian craft they are built from, they are no match even for a basic military corvette save in large numbers. Their "sting-and-die" nature, combined with their awkward bulk, has earned them their name. Pirate Frigate Built usually on the hulls of medium freighters, pirate "frigates" compare poorly to their built-for-war counterparts in firepower, defensive power, and often size. Far more space efficient than pirate gunships, they can still carry enough loot to support their crew and vessel, save in the most extreme circumstances: pirate frigates that give up everything for guns and armor are usually instead called pirate "destroyers." In keeping with the theme started in the common pirate gunship's nickname, pirate frigates are called "wasps" or "heavy wasps" depending on their "frigate" or "destroyer" status. Pirate Cruiser Fairly uncommon, pirate cruisers are usually built on the hulls of heavy freighters that have been hollowed out to carry weapons, shield generators, and sometimes flight decks for pirate strike craft. Pirate cruisers tend to vary wildly in their space-to-weaponry ratio depending on the original frame and the vessel's history, but none compare to true warships in their class. Still, a pirate cruiser is one of the few vessels criminals can get their hands on that poses a threat to genuine warships. Again in keeping with previously-established themes, pirate cruisers are called "queens" in naval slang, often for their position of honor as pirate fleet flagships. Category:Space Navy Category:Humanist Union